Tim Smith - Let Your Will Be Done
Exploring faith journeys and inspiring ministries that embody the good news of God. This is the Cumberland Road. I am your host, TJ Malinoski. There is a tendency to categorize ministers as biblical scholars, office dwellers, pious pastors. Today's guest stretches these categories, casting a different perspective upon the office ministry. Reverend Tim Smith is a minister in Fayetteville, Tennessee. This summer, he accomplished the feat of climbing Mount Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental 48 states. In 02/2021, Tim has become a finalist for the Tennessee School Board Association as a top school volunteer. In our conversation, Tim shared something that has stuck with me. Through his journey of faith, he said, Lord, let your will be done. And whatever it is, just give me the strength to accept it. Enjoy this conversation on Cumberland Road with guest Tim Smith.
T.J.:Tim Smith, thank you for joining me on the podcast. My opening question for you is, you'll have to fill me in. Something has occurred in your life, and you're somewhat famous now. What what recent thing did you do to make you famous or infamous? Which one is it?
Tim:Well, I I it may be infamous, but for those people that know me, I've always enjoyed hiking a great deal, especially mountains. And I went to just recently got back from climbed Mount Whitney, which is the highest mountain in the Connellon 48 states. It's 14,503 feet, and it's about a 22, 20 three mile hike, And so I started about 02:00 in the morning, and I got finished about 06:00 at night. It was really hot. It was supposed to be.
Tim:It was supposed to have been the hottest day in the history of California. It wound up not being. But that morning when we left the hotel in Lone Pine, my wife and I got up and we left at 01:30 for her to go drop me off. It was 91 degrees.
T.J.:Woah.
Tim:And yes, yes. It's real close to Death Valley. Now, of course, as I started going up in elevation, it started cooling off. But it was still pretty warm, and then I got stuck in three thunderstorms at the top. So I got a new appreciation for lightning and its power and God's grace to take care of us.
Tim:And even fools as they're trying to go up a mountain or come down one in that case. But but we had a really good time out there and enjoyed it and and had had had some good views and everything.
T.J.:Now did you go with other people, or do you go on your own?
Tim:No. No. I just went by myself. You had to get a permit, and I had been told that I only had about a 30% chance every year to get a permit put in, and they assigned me July 11. And then I was told only about one out of four people get actually to the top.
Tim:I think the day I went, it may have been a little higher than that because I only saw a few people turn around. Mhmm. But the the weather cooperated fairly well. Like I said, we got or I got caught in a thunderstorm. But I was glad to get back down in in one piece after all the lightning.
Tim:But, know, it was strange. It was so hot at the bottom. When it started raining, it would be what we would consider in Tennessee a winter rain. It turned cold, had to get my cold out. Very, very, you know, at high elevation, the weather is very changeable.
T.J.:Yeah. Well, congratulations on the Thank
Tim:Thank you.
T.J.:And you received an award recently as well. Right?
Tim:Well, I've been nominated for award as the Tennessee School Board Association gives out a a statewide award every year for somebody they deemed to be the top school volunteer in the state. And I've been nominated for that award, and I just found out just yesterday that I am a finalist for that award.
T.J.:So Wow. Congratulations.
Tim:Thank you. I'll find out in November whether I wind up winning it or not. I was really surprised and humbled to be nominated because I think back to to my childhood and different people that really volunteered and did a lot of work in the schools. And so I would not have, you know, I kind of felt uncomfortable with that. But when they actually wrote down all that they said that I had done, it did make a pretty big list.
T.J.:Okay. So as a volunteer, what does that include? What have you done for the school system?
Tim:Well, the the way it was the way it got started was I started out really getting involved in their sports program, and I did their public address announcing for football, for basketball. And then that kinda expanded into a lot of other things. I put the baccalaureate service together. I've been, you know, sort of, I guess we'd say the chaplain for a lot of sports teams. The Fayetteville City Schools is a small school system.
Tim:And they sorta just took me in as one of them. And I've been able to get to know just about all the kids, spend a lot of time with them. And that's been really good. That's turned into, I guess we could say an outreach ministry in itself. I know they certainly would not classify it that way, but to be able to interact with that many young people, it's a system that serves underprivileged community.
Tim:And so there are a lot of people that, especially a lot of young men, that really do not have what we would say a strong male role model or certainly a Christian role model. So that that that's worked out really well I think.
T.J.:Alright. Yeah Tim congratulations on being a a bonafide mountain climber and a school volunteer and being recognized within the state. That those are two Thank you. You. Two great accomplishments.
T.J.:Well, let's take a minute and just, tell our listeners, who you are and where you're serving and and just kind of give a brief brief introduction.
Tim:Well, I'm Tim Smith. I'm the pastor of the Fayetteville Cumberland Presbyterian Church here in Fayetteville, Tennessee. I've been here now seventeen years. I was born, raised here in Lincoln County. Grew up in the Kelso Church.
Tim:My father later served as the pastor of the Fayetteville Church, Kirk Smith. And so I grew up there and then went to, you know, went to college, had a lot of different ideas of what I was going to do. Was determined I was not going to be in ministry and of course, you see how that worked out. Wound up going to work for the state of Tennessee for a while and then finally surrendered to the call, went to seminary in Memphis, graduated. And like I said, I served well, I've been here seventeen years, and I was at the Boone's Hill Church, which is a small church here in our county for about four years before that.
Tim:Got been married to my wife now, Shanna, for I'm going calculate up. Believe it's thirteen years. So we're on the lucky the lucky year. And my daughter, she is six and a half, Skyler. And that's I I guess sort of who I am and what I am and I've I've I've been fortunate that went to seminary, got out, and still serving here in my home area.
Tim:I know a lot of folks and probably a lot of people living in this, you know, had to move hundreds of miles away from home but that that didn't happen to me. It might have been better for me if it had but but it's it's all worked out well here.
T.J.:Yeah. Well, and here you are and here's where you've been and
Tim:Yeah.
T.J.:Who knows where you're going. Right?
Tim:That's right. We don't know. We don't know.
T.J.:Well, I I'm looking forward to asking you this question that I ask every guest, especially with your background as a preacher's kid or PK as they're often called is. Tim, can you recall a meaningful experience with God? And that can be something in the past or something more recent.
Tim:Well, I thought, I would say one meaningful experience that I'm of course, you know, we'd have to go back to when, you know, I made a professional face, certainly that was important event. But I would say the most meaningful event or the one that is most present in my mind was at sort of a low point. I was in seminary. Was going through at that time of divorce. Things were in we had difficulties here at the church not not because of of my personal issues but other issues in the church.
Tim:The church had when I came here to serve as pastor had been through a very difficult time. There had been a lot of I guess we'd say had been a split or a division. And we were not very far along in the process of healing. And I remember just being really stressed out and I got in the car, was getting ready to leave to go to Memphis. It was about a four hour drive over there to go to class.
Tim:You know, I'm a type person that wants to plan everything and wants to try to figure out how we're going to do everything. And and it just came to me that I was going to have to just let that go and just I remember praying just simply, Lord, let your will be done and whatever your will is, just give me the strength to accept it. And that was a very freeing moment. I mean, I guess, you know, we always say or I've always heard you need to turn things over to the Lord, but we lay them down and we pick them back up. And so that was, that's just one that came to my mind.
Tim:I would be better off if I did that more if I would not try to worry about it or or try to be concerned as much.
T.J.:Yeah, it sounds like you were wearing a lot in terms of burden, just personal, vocational, going to school. That that's a lot on on any one individual. Absolutely.
Tim:And that that was a lot. I asked, I remember, I I was talking with with JR Hart Brown at the time and I said, I don't know why this is happening. I said, maybe it's where I can can relate better or to, you know, to people in different circumstances. And I thought, well, you know, maybe it's where I can relate better, minister better for people that, you know, have discord in their marriage and so forth. And that's true, unless you've been there, unless you've walked that road, it's hard to be with somebody.
Tim:Well then, a couple of years after that, I got cancer. And I thought, well, how on earth is it? You know, I thought, well, maybe this is where I can relate better, administer better people that that have cancer and I was talking to Doctor J Bat and he said, well, I I think if I was you, I'd tell the lord, I don't want to relate to anybody else. And I think there's a lot of truth to that too.
T.J.:Well, looking back on that particular period of your life and time, what were some of the takeaways of of actually giving some of those over, those burdens over? You didn't call them burdens, but they sure sounded like it just that tough time in your life. So what what takeaway do you have from that that moment and that experience that draw you closer to god?
Tim:Well, first, I would say is, you know, obviously, god is going to bring you through whatever situation it is and he will give us the strength to carry whatever burden we have on us. I know I've always heard people say, the Lord won't put on you more than you can stand. But Bible, that's not in the Bible. I I think a better way to say it. The Lord will give you the ability or the strength or the grace or whatever term we want to use to to carry any burden that winds up coming up on you.
Tim:But he he will get you through. There's times that we begin to wonder, I think, but but he he does bring us through.
T.J.:You know, you you're right. You probably are a stronger individual and have experiences to draw from in your ministry to be able to relate to others in a similar circumstance. At least in terms of sympathy and not necessarily solutions but sympathy of of being familiar with pain and loss and turmoil and confusion and frustration and whatever else was going through your mind during that time.
Tim:Well, that's true. And and I would say the last several years of my life, just just for those that's listening, I would say the last several years of my life, it would have been hard for them to be be much better than they've been. I mean, there's always the possibility could be perfect, and you could, you know, somebody could pull up and hand you a million dollars. But for the most part, I would say, I guess after you hit the bottom, it's all up from there.
T.J.:I've heard that before. I don't want to hit the bottom to find out
Tim:though. Yeah. Yeah.
T.J.:Yeah. Well, Tim, taking those two extremes, where things are, you know, God is blessing you now, and then looking back in the past and just having those rough patches, you know, reflecting on both at the same time, how has that impacted your faith in Jesus Christ? Has it solidified, you know, your purpose and and your relationship? Did it weaken it? Did it remain the same?
T.J.:How has all those experiences culminated in this relationship that you have?
Tim:Well, ever since I was very young, I've always had a a very strong faith in the Lord because, of course, you know, going to church on Sunday was not an an option at the Smith House and and then there in my extended family as well. So we went and I've just always, I guess, been more of a spiritual person than than some folks anyway, and and so I always had a strong faith. In the difficult times, obviously, your faith in the Lord gives you the ability to look past those temporary burdens, that things are going to be better. And certainly now as I look at it the Lord has been very good. But I I I was blessed then even though I may have been going through a difficult time.
Tim:I was blessed then. Just as I'm blessed now because God has always been good to me. Much better than I deserve. I'll say that.
T.J.:And and sometimes that's hard to feel and experience in the midst of those bad times when you're kinda wondering, god, where where are you?
Tim:Right.
T.J.:In your pastorate and in your ministry, Tim, how do you help others when they are kind of wondering where God is in in their times of faith or lack of faith? Maybe they haven't maybe they're still seekers. But how do you draw from those experiences to be able to say, look, this is this is where I have seen and feel God in my life. God is present in your life as well.
Tim:Yeah. I I think I think that's a tough job in in ministry because sometimes one of the questions we get asked, and I'm sure you've been asked this before, is, you know, I'm praying that this particular prayer will be answered. I'm praying that this burden be lifted or or whatever, And that's not happening. And so trying to talk that person through realizing that what we may think is best may not be what is best or certainly may not be in accordance with God's will. That that's that's really a hard conversation to have.
Tim:And if someone does not, you know, I I I think you have to have quite a bit of faith as a starting point to that. If you're if you're still trying to figure out if God is real or not, then it's it's it's easy for us to lose our way when difficulty comes.
T.J.:Right. Right. Well, let's talk about the people you have encountered in your life that has helped you find your way, some people that have had a great impact on your faith.
Tim:Well, I would I would have to say my parents, both both my mother and father, they modeled the faith. It was very important in our home. I would also say some of my extended family when I was young, actually, when I made a professional faith, my father had not gone into the ministry at that time. My uncle was the pastor of the church, Charles Gibson. He shortly after that passed away suddenly.
Tim:But but he he served the church and often times in the family you would hear the or I guess my uncles and others discussing you know the Bible or discussing different ideas about theology or whatever. So that was very commonplace. And so I guess that was just an example put before that being a Christian was not just a good thing, but it was the expected thing, and that's what you were work to do. And even though all those people that I mentioned, including myself, have imperfection and flaws, we still, you know, it was still very important to be a Christian. And and I feel for people that do not have that model before them.
Tim:That's one reason I think the church, you know, continues to struggle because so many people, the the gospel is not really being told to them unless they do come to church or unless they are in a different setting. I remember my college roommate, he had only been in the church one time and that was for a wedding. And he told me in the conversation one day that he had gone to the wedding and he said, you know, they they had this huge room there. He said they had these robes you could sit on. And he said they had a podium up at the front where you could talk.
Tim:He went through describing the sanctuary and he thought the only thing it was used for was to conduct a wedding. Wow. And I remember thinking how, you know, that that was so foreign to me at the time. Now, it's probably even more so.
T.J.:Yeah, I I think, you know, in relating to your your uncle, the talking about our faith and discussing the scriptures doesn't have to be contained inside these church walls. It can happen and should happen in the home and out in the front yard or the backyard or during a break at work. It doesn't those conversations nor that relationship with God has to be contained to the couple hours on a given given weekday or weekend day on a Sunday. Yeah. That's a challenge for all of us as disciples and and look look at the impact that it's had on you.
Tim:Right. Right. Yeah.
T.J.:Anyone else that has had great impact on your faith journey?
Tim:Well, of course, you know, there are those people that you even encounter in the pasture that you occasionally encounter people that have great burdens on them.
T.J.:Mhmm.
Tim:And they're able to carry them with grace, and you know they could not do that if it were not for their faith in the Lord. And I I can't speak for all the pastors, but I learned a long time ago that there's a lot of folks in the pews that have stronger faith than us that are the official ministers have. And it is an amazing, you know, God, God's grace is an amazing amazing thing.
T.J.:Right. You're right. Some of the strongest individuals I have ever met have have just been great disciples and and maybe weren't even in a leadership role at any level within a church and a local congregation. But just led by example. In everywhere that they walked.
T.J.:And I look up to those individuals. I really do. Tim, how did you how'd you get into the ministry? The ministry, the word, and the sacraments?
Tim:Well, I think I'd known since I was pretty young that I was called into the ministry, but that wasn't what I wanted to do. I I wanted to do other stuff. And finally, it it continued and it continued, and it seemed like I was starting to hit some dead ends that some doors were not opening for me. And finally, you know, the Lord was really wrestling with me. And I said, Lord, if if somebody wants me to preach, I'll come preach, you know.
Tim:You know, I finally, I remember praying that night, you know. Now, Lord, if somebody calls me, I'll go, but I'm not gonna go out looking for it. I think it was about three days after that. Now I was living in Nashville at the time. An elder called me at my office.
Tim:He had called my father and got the number, and the pastor had retired at the Boone's Hill Church and wanted to know if I could come preach for the month of April. And like I said, that just been two or three days. Well, this scared me because I knew clearly the Lord was at work. If I had said I was willing to do it and somebody had called me out of the blue. And so I went there and preached the month of April and I went up staying there four years until I accepted the call to come here.
Tim:Wow. And that that was a good spot for me. The people at Booms Hill were where they still are very, very small church, very loving church, they were very supportive of me as I still tried to discern the call of whether I was going to be a lay speaker, whether I was going to go through a program of alternate studies, whether I was going to go to seminary and all those things. They they were very supportive and patient, and I learned a lot from them.
T.J.:And you had never preached a message before prior to Boone's Hill?
Tim:Well, I had preached probably three or four times. I had filled in for my father a couple of times, and I had filled in a couple of Sundays when somebody couldn't be there just as a lay speaker. But, but not on any regular basis, you know.
T.J.:So when Boone's Hill heard Tim preach, they got Tim Smith raw. They got you
Tim:Raw. Raw. They got it raw. That is correct. And they put up with it.
Tim:That's that says a lot for them.
T.J.:Well, looking at where you are in ministry today and in your life and your mountain climbing, What would you tell another person if if someone was to ask you where you see God in the world today? How do you know that God exists, and where can you see God's presence in the world?
Tim:I would say two things. One, I would say we seem in the natural world. I'm always amazed to look at the creation. You think about its beauty, whether we're talking about a sunrise, sunset, we're talking about all the animals, how the ecosystem works together, how the environment and the weather works, you know, all the different landscapes, whether it's a desert, whether it's a mountain, the depths of the ocean, all that to me, I'm in full agreement with John Calvin when he said that the creation testifies day and night to the glory of God. Because I I just don't believe there's any way that these things could have just come about as some sort of accident or by default.
Tim:Having said that, the other place I think we see God at work is in people in the world. Now, the world is broken. The world is, you know, ungodly. It always has been. It's going to continue to be until the Lord comes again.
Tim:But with all of that, there are still a lot of good people doing good, not perfect people, not morally up, you know, good as in the sense that we don't need salvation, but people that are striving to do work, you know, you think about when people bringing you food when you're sick, people going and and comforting the bereaved, And and that should be through the church, through the greater church, the body of Christ, that that people see God at work in the world.
T.J.:Well, let's talk about the the church that you and I are a part of and that we serve this this denomination, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Tim, what hopes do you have for this denomination that we both are a part of and that we both serve?
Tim:Well, I I would I I don't know that that this is if a hope is the right word, but let let me just share where I kinda think things are going. And some of this we may lament and some of this we may welcome like with all change. But I do really believe the churches, we know what is changing. The church I pastor has a very large sanctuary. I wish it was filled.
Tim:It's not. But we have a very large physical plant. I think we are going to see fewer and fewer churches meeting in buildings as we know it. I think we're going to see more of a movement to. Groups of people, maybe some sale ministries if that would be the word to call it, but people functioning in a more informal way to do the work of the church.
Tim:Because I think we saw some of that with pandemic and our response to that. We've seen the advent of technology and what this can bring about. And I think it's also going to in the long run, continue to have a detrimental effect on church finances. I think full time ministry, I've been blessed to be full time minister for seventeen years and hope hope to continue for a long time. But I think we're going to move more into where ministers have secular work.
Tim:And I know that as we hear that, that sounds like defeat. It sounds like we're giving up. I I don't see it that way. I think what we're doing is we're moving into a a new phase in which we can better minister to people and reach people where they are because. I I learned some time ago that if I went out here and just said I'm going to have a Bible study and I didn't attach a church name to it, you'll normally draw up more people than when you attach the church name to it.
Tim:There's something about it. I don't know if it's the stigmatism. I don't know if it's the that people have been either or unchurched and don't know where they've been de churched. They had their feelings hurt in some way, but people are reluctant to come into the church building as we know it. And and I know you deal a lot with that with new church development, and you may have more insight that you could give there, but that that's the sort of thought of where I think we're going.
T.J.:Yeah. I think we are there in many ways and it's a matter of embracing different ways of developing and deepening our discipleship, but also reaching out to others. And small groups can be a way. And in embracing, you know, the digital spaces that are available, creating those digital spaces, for people to to be able to see, can ask questions about God, which is what we're all about to begin with, is creating those spaces where people can come to know God through Jesus Christ. Yeah.
T.J.:It it's just a matter of, do we embrace it or do we get pulled in kicking and screaming? I guess that will just that will that will depend on the individual and maybe the group setting.
Tim:Yeah. We'll probably go kicking and screaming. That's normally, you know, the church, the church is not a place for change. People have changed everywhere in their lives, but they don't want change in the church. Sadly, because we relate change in the church to God changing.
Tim:And those are two totally different things. But our idea of God is wrapped up in how we worshiped and the songs we've sung and and the family we sit with and went to church with. And when that begins to change God is still the same, but it's all wrapped together. So we struggle with that.
T.J.:I I think you're right, Tim, and I think if we looked at it as we have a relationship with God and to have a relationship that remains stagnant usually has some red flags and warning signs. But if we're in a relationship that is growing, there is change, And it's how do we respond to that change. Is it deepening our relationship with Christ? Is it drawing us away? And I think if we can look at change as ways of deepening our relationship with Christ and with one another, then you won't have to drag us kicking and screaming.
T.J.:We'll be running towards days Yeah. To deepen that and to help our discipleship. Well, Tim, if you are not climbing a mountain and if you're not volunteering, they're in the school system and you're not serving the Fayetteville church, how can we continue to follow you on your faith journey?
Tim:Well, one one place you can look at our church YouTube channel it's Fayetteville, Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The the channel is that mouthful all in one word. Okay. But you could just key in Fayetteville, CP Church, or Fayetteville Cumberland Church, and it'll come up. We try to get a sermon up every week.
Tim:That's one way that you that you can follow me. I am on Twitter and Instagram, but I don't I rarely post things. I more watch what other people do that I put things out there, which can be scary. I'm still resisting Facebook. I am learning, though, that it's harder and harder to be to serve as a good pastor without having access to Facebook because peep it's really hard to know.
Tim:You know, people don't call and tell you things. They just put it out there.
T.J.:Alright. Well, Tim, thank you so much for your time.
Tim:Yes, sir. Sir. Enjoyed it.
T.J.:And thank you for listening to today's podcast. Grab a friend and travel with us on our next journey down Cumberland Road.
